And Falls Again
by ayre-moose
Summary: When downandout Axel gets an offer from Larxene to pull his life back together, he never expected to find Roxas.. or genderbender Dyme, either. But he quickly realises there's something not quite right with this Roxas.. and that's just the start..
1. The Way Things Are

**So, here we have my novel attempt at making a comeback into the fanfiction world! This is, of course, an akuroku…another one to add to the ever growing pile. Not that I'm complaining – the more the merrier. Hehe. **

**This is a first person fic with both Axel and Roxas' POV used. It'll be made clear whose POV is being used, but I'll probably swing into the whole Axel – Roxas – Axel – Roxas, etc, thing. **

**And this is the disclaimer: The thing I have to say that tells you all that all that I own of Kingdom Hearts are my own copy of the games. Basically put: I own nothing. **

**Plot: Axel – your average guy with nowhere to go. Larxene - his best friend with ambitions and a taser. Dyme - gender bender armed with a sitar. Roxas - the guy who sees himself and some other kid all at once. Marluxia - the one living a secret lie. Some things just have to work. **

(Subject to change. I have a lot of ideas with no clear way of stringing them together yet. But they will be. I hope. So maybe I'll think of a better plot description eventually o.0 That one seems a little off to me… maybe not XD)

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Chapter 1: The Way Things Are

In my experience, it's pretty damn rare to find a guy who's perfectly content with his life. It just doesn't come that way, y'know? It's all ups and downs and victories and defeats, and then you die anyway, whether it be with a gun to your head or kicking it the good old natural way. The point is, if you were to ask me whether _I_ was happy and content back then, you wouldn't have been getting a good answer. To me, to be happy is to lounge about with beer in hand and some mates to kick back with and relax, and just then it was anything but. To anyone who calls living on your own with no way to pay rent for the past three months, plus being expelled in the last year of school for being a 'flaming homo' (their words, believe it if you will – my school was pretty fucked up), I have no doubt that you're completely insane. Simply put, I was an 18 year old with nowhere to go from where I was but down. Down and straight out.

Name's Axel. Now, normally that's where my trademark phrase, 'got it memorized' would go down, but it got a little washed out after Larxene kept predicting when I was gonna say it and getting it right _every damn time_. So eventually I stopped using it, and in turn she shut up about it. To be honest, I have no idea where it came from, anyway.

Oh yeah, Larxene. The only one left I can actually trust. See, there was this gang of us – myself, Larxene, and these three guys - Marluxia, Saix and Xigbar. Everyone thought we were a cult – I mean, it's not every day you come across so many people with x's in their names. To be honest, I was hardly the ringleader – Saix pretty much took that job the day we all met – so I don't know the origin of it all. Me, I've been called Axel since the day I was born, so I was just a co-incidence.

Thing was, one day we came in and Saix told us that Marluxia was gone. He never elaborated, and we never asked. To put it plainly, we never saw him again and we never found out whether he had actually died or not. Soon after that, Saix and Xigbar stopped talking to me and Larxene. In the end they betrayed us. Luckily, Larxene's fucked up enough to carry some sort of taser around with her, so when Xigbar came up behind her with a knife she grabbed it… and… I'll leave you with the fact that Xigbar may or may not be infertile right now. We never found out, because after that Xigbar left, too. Saix… well we thought it'd be better to block him out, which was easy 'cause he never tried saying anything to us again. For a ringleader, he was pretty quiet. One of those enigmas.

So that's how me and Larxene ended up being close friends – not lovers. Never, ever anything like that. A lot of people thought it, but what they didn't know was that I wouldn't have gone for Larxene anyway.

Heh heh.

She didn't go to the same school as me anyway. Her school was… well, I remember the conversation we had about it pretty clearly. It was just after I'd been kicked out. I called her up, and we met at some local coffee shop.

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"Damn, and you made it so far." Larxene quipped, tipping her chair back and resting her feet on the table, ignoring the glares of the staff directed her way. But that was Larxene for you – she couldn't be more laid back if she tried. That wasn't to say that was her permanent mood; she wasn't one of those types of people who spend their whole life whacked out in lala land. Nah, she could be a lot more hot-headed than I can ever get. I was pretty docile, considering

"Can't say I'm particularly bothered. That place was a shit hole, anyways" I grinned. Larxene laughed, shaking her head a little.

"Yeah, yeah. So you got any plans now?" She asked. I shrugged.

"Can't say I do. I'm winging it from here." It sounded easy when I said it. If only it was.

"The 'easy life', huh?" Larxene's sarcasm was hard to miss.

"Hey now, I never said it'd be easy. I mean, for one I've only just got enough money to pay this month's rent. From there on… I dunno. I guess I'll have to find a job…"

"Aww, poor wittle Axel's gonna have to go and find a _job_!" Larxene smirked, obviously having heard the incredible amount of enthusiasm I had portrayed when talking about jobs. I shot her back a glare as she laughed to herself for a second. "Well aside from jobs, if you want to get anywhere you're gonna need to take that last bit of school, right?" She asked.

"Well, yeah." As if that wasn't glaringly obvious. "I was _getting_ there, alright?" I said when she gave me one of her looks. She had one for every occasion, I swear. This was her 'are you sure you're thinking ahead enough?' stare.

"Well if you have trouble finding one, you could consider mine." She shrugged before tipping herself back down onto the floor and resting her elbows on the table, her head balanced on her linked hands. "I mean, for one, it's a lot more liberal than the one you just got so nicely kicked out of." I gave her this blank look as if to say 'and that's gonna persuade me… how?' "I mean it!" She carried on. "You come to my school and you can be as gay as you like!" She added to this proclamation by punching the air enthusiastically.

"Yay." I said plainly, feeling this was one of those moments you get where you feel like waving a tiny flag around to show your incredible enthusiasm. "Is that the only redeeming quality about it? You get to be gay?" I asked, folding my arms across the table.

"Pfft." Larxene scoffed, folding her arms right back at me. "Well, y'know. It's got its weirdos as well. You could meet some interesting people."

"Basically… you go to a delinquent school?" I asked, cocking an eyebrow at her.

"Nooooo…" Larxene waved her hand pathetically at me.

"Can't say you're doing much to sway my decision here, Larx." I grinned, sitting back in my chair. It wasn't that I didn't want to take her up on her offer, it was just that we had this thing. I only accepted help from her if I got into an emergency, and vice versa.

"Eh, well, it's your choice." She shrugged, before glancing towards the clock on the wall behind me. "I got somewhere I gotta be." She announced, pushing her chair out and going to stand up.

"Right." If Larxene had 'places to be' it was hardly ever of an innocent nature. I just didn't bother asking anymore.

"Seriously!" She said, grabbing her long, almost gothic black coat from the back of her chair. She wasn't a goth or anything. She just liked their coats. Just like she liked vinyl pants and stuff. Yeah.

"Right, well, all you've proved to me is that I'd have to be desperate to go to your school." I said, grinning as I followed her lead.

"Yeah but… I can see that happening" Larxene said as she began to push open the door. I did the rest of it for her as punishment, pushing her out so she had to catch herself before falling face first onto the pavement. Larxene would never live with that sort of humiliation. "See you later, Ax." She grinned, punching me lightly on the shoulder in retaliation before walking away.

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Unfortunately, she had been totally right. I had become desperate. I had been looking for around a month but absolutely no job opportunities had popped up, and I was therefore broke. My only source of money – a monthly pay from my parents through my bank account – had suddenly stopped. Oh. I mentioned I live alone, right? Well, the simple explanation for that would be that one day my parents just up and left me. They left a note on the fridge saying it was urgent, and that they'd come back every few months. This became the norm for about 2 years until eventually they stopped bothering, and took to instead giving me the monthly sum of money. Now they'd stopped that, it seemed I didn't have much hope left. Every so often I'd scrounge some money off of Larxene, but she was starting to catch on. Although every day it seemed more and more that I would just have to go ahead and tell her.

And of course, eventually, I got that desperate. I picked up my mobile that I hadn't used in a few months – I had decided to keep the little credit it had left for an emergency, and luckily for once my insight had done me a favour. Although, the favour it had done me was giving me the chance to beg to Larxene, something I would never, _ever_ consider normally. So I grit my teeth, flipped open the phone, and hit Larxene's speed dial button.

"Heeeey!" Larxene greeted me. She must have had caller recognition on her phone or something. Whatever, that wasn't what was bothering me just then. "Well this is a rarity. What d'you want?" And that was Larx. No, 'how are you's' and formalities – straight to the point, and if anything that just made it harder for me to tell her what was going on. I was already forfeiting my pride as it was.

"Aah, well, you see… things have gotten a bit… out of hand?" I grinned nervously at the wall in front of me as I flopped down onto the sofa, even though I knew she wouldn't see. Although, even though I couldn't see _her_, I could practically see the smirk she wore when she spoke.

"So you got desperate." It made me twitch. This was not supposed to be happening.

"… I guess you could put it that way." I muttered darkly, trying to send some of my hatred down the phone line.

"I suppose you never found a job, then?" She asked.

"It's like you're psychic." I rolled my eyes at the phone, leaning back into the sofa and propping my free arm over the back.

"Well, I might just have a proposition for you." The smirk was back, I just knew it. But unfortunately I didn't have any choice just then.

"Go on."

"BUT! Only if you join my school. It starts up again in a week and I'm guessing you haven't found one of those either."

"… Yeah, sure, whatever. If they'll take me in." I had known that was gonna crop up again, and honestly I wasn't getting anywhere fast on that front either, so I guessed I might as well suck it up and take whatever I could get.

"They'll take _anyone _in." Larxene reassured me. "Hell, just turn up on the first day, give 'em you're name… it'll be fine."

"Right, yeah." So that was that sorted out. "But, this proposition."

"Oh, right. So I know this guy called Xaldin." I couldn't help but raise my eyebrows at this somewhat.

"Do you just have some knack of making friends with people who have x's in their names?" I asked. Larxene laughed.

"Maybe. Anyway, he owns a restaurant."

"… Larxene, since when have I been able to cook anything aside from heat-and-go meals?" I asked.

"Yeah, I know. But it's not a chef he's looking for. So…"

"Lemme guess. Waiter, right?" I asked. So that was something I could do. Probably. I'd just have to learn the magic trick of balancing thousands of plates on my arms at once.

"Now whose the psychic?" Larxene grinned. Or rather, I was guessing she was. She was pretty predictable sometimes. "So, you think you'd be up for it?"

"Anything for some cash, Larx." I said in my best 'duh' tone.

"Alright, I'll be over tomorrow with an application form." She paused. "Aaand… I guess I'll give you a good word in as a bonus."

"Great. Hey, Larx…"

"Mm?"

"You wouldn't happen to know how to do that insane balancing thing, would you?"

"…Maaybe…" She drawled. "I_ was _a waitress a few months back, remember?"

"…Oh yeah.." It hadn't gone too well, as I remembered. She was great with the carrying food in and out bit, but she socialised a tad too much, ending up with her having lots of orders to take through that weren't going. She didn't last long. "So, you think you can give me a bit of a tutorial?" I asked.

"Ooh, I guess so."

"Thanks, Larx."

"No problem. So, tomorrow, then?"

"Yep."

"Be awake." She said, before hanging up. I grinned at the phone as I took it away from my ear before flipping it back down.

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I had never realised how stupidly long application forms could be. I swear I sat there for at least half an hour just filling in the damn thing whilst Larx crashed out on my sofa. She would have been watching TV if the licence hadn't run out the month before, so instead she had taken to watching my every move. Eventually I got it done.

"This alright?" I asked, handing it to Larxene. She poured over it for a few minutes before giving a satisfied nod.

"I'll go give it to him today." She said, folding it up and sticking it in her pocket. "So, this tutorial. Go and get some plates, and we shall begin your training…"

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An hour and a half later and I could successfully balance 4 plates on my arm without dropping anything. I had already destroyed two plates, but Larxene promised she'd make it up to me.

The next day I went in to have an interview. It was all pretty nerve wracking stuff.

The boss, Xaldin, was an… interesting kinda guy. He had this weird psuedo-English accent, which freaked me out a little at first. Eventually I got used to it, but occasionally he would slip this strange accent in that sounded like a paedophile who'd spotted a small kid. Aside from the weird accent, he could chop things like… well, I dunno what like, but… damn. Sometimes I got caught up just watching him cook.

So I had a trial run in the restaurant, eternally grateful for Larx's balancing act tutorial. That, plus my obvious charm and Larx's testimony for me was eventually what got me the job. (The whole charm thing – I'm serious, Xaldin wanted someone extroverted who at least didn't go around frowning the whole day. Of course, the whole extrovert thing was something I thought to be one of my redeeming qualities.)

I started properly the next day and met my co-workers before people started coming on. (an added bonus of being a waiter was that we didn't have to go in until 10, as it opened to the public at 12. Honestly I would have taken anything Larxene could give me back then, but it was even better getting one that didn't involve getting up at some insane time like 6 or something) They were a pretty normal lot. Tifa was my waitress-in-arms, a nice girl… with these insane boobs. Really, I've never seen any so… in your face. Before I had even met her, the other waiter, Zell, told me _not_ to mention them.

"Huh? Why?"

"Trust me, you'll see." Zell warned me. "She can get vicious if you mention 'em. She may look cute and pretty but she sure packs a punch."

It's a good thing Zell warned me, too, otherwise I probably would have frozen where I was in shock. I had to try really hard to stop myself from staring. It seemed as though I was doing a good job – she smiled at me in greeting and I made myself focus on that.

"Hi, I'm Tifa Lockhart."

'_Focusonthewords, focusonthewords...'_

"It's nice to see a new face around here." She said, holding out her hand. I grinned and took it.

"Axel." I said, my mind still on the constant 'don't slip up' loop. "Tit's nice to meet you."

Hold on.

Stop.

Rewind.

Oh. _Shit._

Talk about clichés.

"Err, I mean…" Tifa's face darkened slightly, but she seemed to hold back, instead nodding and turning away. When I looked round I saw Zell staring wide-eyed at me.

"What?" I asked, frowning.

"She… she didn't beat the crap out of you." He murmured. I smirked.

"Bad experiences?"

"Oh yeah.." Zell nodded. I laughed, patted him on the shoulder, and went to see Xaldin to see what I needed to do for the day.

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All things considered, my first day went surprisingly well. I didn't break anything, which was an accomplishment in itself. Plus, I got on well with my co-workers, even after the first slip up with Tifa. And to top it all off, I got money! Flimsy bits of paper of which I had not seen the likes of for months! MONEY!

A loud cough drew me from my little world of happiness, and I whipped round in surprise to see Larxene casually leaning against the door, watching me in amusement.

"Glad to see you're having a good time." She said, pushing off the door before walking over.

"It's _money_, Larx." I bounded over to her before she could even start getting past the tables and thrust it into her face. "The stuff that's going to save me!!"

"Hey, I think that should be attributed to _me_." Larxene folded her arms, grinning. "I'm the one who saved your sorry ass from poverty in the first place, remember?"

"Oh, yeah…" I murmured. "But still, money!" I couldn't help it – finally things were going my way. Larxene wasn't about to dull my high!

"Anyway, I came round here to drag you with me… somewhere." She said cryptically, something that was very rare of Larxene. So rare in fact that I wasn't quite sure whether to accept or not. The last time she said she was going to take me 'somewhere', I had ended up on a plane to Japan. Now _that_ had been interesting. But that was another thing entirely.

"'Somewhere.'" I quoted plainly, hands on hips.

"Oh no, this isn't another 'lets go to a foreign country' somewhere.'" She explained, grinning. "Far from it."

"…Fiine." I sighed, nodding. "But only 'cause you landed me a job here. Seriously Larx, you're a lifesaver." She was turning around as I said it, but I caught what seemed like a genuine smile, which was pretty rare on her part.

"Yeah yeah, I know." She was starting to walk out the door, and I quickly followed, stashing the money into my pocket. "Consider it a one-off, okay?"

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**And there you have it, the start of** **what I hope will be a story both myself and you guys'll enjoy. … 'cause it'd be a bit pointless if neither of us did, right?**

**Reviews are dead awesome. Hinthint And yes, I can guess some people are gonna be like, WHERE'S ROXAS. The answer: he is here, somewhere. I'll find him. Promise. **

**Trivia: The title of this fic probably has nothing to do with the fic. It just sounded cool. XD **

**  
Until next time!**


	2. What The Future Is

**Soo… I'm back, lol. Not much to say here.   
**

** Disclaimer: I own… nothing. Woohoo.  
**

** This chapter is shorter than the first one and I have no idea why, and I am sorry ;-;   
**

** Anyway, enjoy **

** Chapter 2: What the Future Is**

So half an hour later (we had taken Larxene's car, but we stopped off at some café 'cause Larx was craving caffeine – one of her weaknesses) we stopped in front of this huge building. I looked it up and down, seeing as this appeared to be Larxene's chosen destination – it wasn't too shabby, not run down at least.

It took a moment to click.

"Hang on… what'd you bring me here for?"

"You guessed, huh?" She asked, undoing her seatbelt as she spoke. "I just thought it'd be a good idea for you to get a look at it."

Larxene's school. From the outside, it didn't look too bad.

"What, just like this?" I asked, frowning.

"Well, I thought I'd give you some idea of what you're letting yourself into." She was starting to get out of the car, so I followed her, but all she did once she had shut the door was to lean herself up against it.

What she said had kinda hit me hard. In all honesty, I had absolutely no idea just what I was letting myself in for. For all I knew, Larx could be leading me to an insane asylum or something. Not to say I was particularly worried, it's just weird going head first into something you've never tried. Or going somewhere you've never been. Works the same way.

To be honest, when I had first met Larxene, I thought she would be one of those delinquents – smoking pot day in day out with a bunch of druggies, you know the sort, right? But… once you got to know her – and to really know her, she had to trust you like she trusted me – she turned out to be an ambitious woman who just happened to be a little aggressive. Sure, she smoked occasionally and drunk but she wasn't what your initial impression of her would most likely be. Not like Marluxia – he was the complete opposite. Your first impression of him would most probably be that he looked well-kept and looked after himself, making sure he got a proper education, no smoking, no drugs… the whole caboodle. Of course he wasn't _actually_ like that in reality.

I met Marluxia when I was 16 – he was the last one to join our little gang. Larxene had met him in some club, as far as I had gathered. He seemed like a nice guy at first – he won my trust within about the first week of meeting him – I told you about the first impressions thing - but that had turned out to be a big mistake. Not that I knew it at the time. I pretty much followed him on hand and foot wherever he took me, from quiet nightclubs to this hardcore drug circle he knew. I guess you're thinking he pressurised me into taking some stuff? Well, you'd be half right. I say half 'cause the other half was my trust for Marluxia speaking.

In fact, now I think about it, that was pretty much the only time I ever saw him truly depressed – when he was coming down from his drug induced high. He was pretty carefree by nature – he didn't have a particular goal in life.

In reality, only Larx and Saix really seemed to have any sort of ambition or goal ahead of them.

"Question." I said suddenly, snapping my train of thought.

"Yeah?"

"Why were you so intent on getting me here, anyway?" I asked, running a hand through my hair distractedly. Larxene seemed taken aback at the question, although it was pretty damn hard to tell – being taken aback was yet another one of Larx's rare moods. She didn't answer for a while, instead choosing to shift her position a little whilst getting out her taser and playing around with it absent-mindedly. Occasionally she'd turn it on and watch the sparks flicker across the two metal points. Larx loved lightning, y'see. It wasn't rare for her to go out in a lightning storm and stand in the pouring rain just to watch the sparks light the sky. She wasn't stupid, though – she didn't go and sit on trees or anything. In fact, I joined her once (it was the last time, too – I don't go well with water) – we sat on this rubber ring in the park that had been detached from its metal chain. Vandalism or something… anyway, she may like lightning but dying because of it definitely wasn't on her 'to-do' list.

Anyway. I knew she wasn't avoiding the question; Larx wasn't the type to bullshit you like that. Nah, she was just thinking of a plausible answer, and luckily for her I was the patient type. Eventually she looked up, flicking the taser off simultaneously.

"Marluxia." She murmured.

"Ah…" I nodded. Larxene had never liked Marluxia particularly, especially when I practically abandoned her to go hang out with him. "Didn't know you cared." I joked, smiling as I clapped her on the shoulder. I knew she meant well, after all.

"Shut up." The taser flared back to life, and suddenly it was dangerously close to my face, the sparks causing purple lights to dance in my eyes.

"Alright already." I muttered, turning away and rubbing them. Another thing about Larxene. She hates being made out as sympathetic. She was a bad-ass on the outside, and that was how she liked it. Honestly though, she could be just as caring and sympathetic as any girl if you got her alone… and of course, promised not to tell anyone. Not unsurprisingly the promise was made sure to be kept with the threat of the taser.

She grunted, but I could tell she wasn't really annoyed as she pocketed the now switched off device before sliding back into the drivers seat. By then it was getting darker, and I decided that I knew just what would cheer her up.

"You know what I feel like right now?" I asked, grinning as I got in beside her.

"What?"

"… I feel… like getting pissed." I declared. From beside me Larxene laughed, nodding as the car engine roared into life.

"You know… I think you're right."

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The rest of the week was a bit of a blur – there wasn't much happening aside from me getting used to my new job. By the end of the week I was feeling really quite sorry for Tifa – she really did get a lot of stares. I talked to her about it once, although it was pretty short lived.

"I'm surprised you stay with this job." Tifa started as I spoke – she had just come back in from the main body of the restaurant after being subject to more stares.

"Huh?" She gave me this blank stare.

"Well, y'know." I motioned my head towards the subject of my question. "The harassment." I murmured.

"Oh… that." She shrugged, putting the used plates down. "Trust me, wherever I could have gone I would have got that. I've got used to it."

"Wow, harsh."

"… I know you were no different when you first met me."

"Wha'?" I cast my mind back to it. "Ah.. yeah." I nervously ran a hand through my hair. So, she had noticed. But then, judging by what she had just told me, she probably had some kinda of radar for it, y'know, like some people have their gay-dars. Maybe it was a boob-dar, I dunno. She gave me a knowing half-smile before moving on.

A few days before school started up again, Larxene turned up after work for the second time. When I asked her what she was doing, she simply grinned and walked out. Intrigued, I followed her into her car. All-in-all I was slightly disappointed when all that ended up in us parking in my apartments driving lot.

"… And the point of that was…?" I asked, frowning.

"I felt like being nice for once." She said. "That a problem?"

"No, no… it's just so… unlike you." I said, starting to get out of the car. "Well, thanks anyway, Larx."

"No problem." She grinned and started the engine as soon as I had shut the door.

My apartment was nothing special. It was your average sized flat, consisting of my bedroom, kitchen, living room and. of course, bathroom.

For the first few minutes I just leant against the door, wondering what to do for the next few hours. What brought me out of my stupor was a knock on the door, sending vibrations down my back. I frowned. This was pretty rare…

"Who is it?"

"Guess." Larx's sarcastic tones floated through the door.

"What're you doing back?" I asked.

"Open the door and you'll find out, idiot." She called back. I did so, and was instantly greeted with… heaven was the closest word I could find to describe it. In one hand she held a bag full of food and in the other… a bag full of booze. As I stared at them I swear my eyes must have done that sparkly thing they do in anime.

"You like?" She asked, grinning.

"I… I…" Was lost for words. "You are _so_ awesome." I had had a slight lack of food since I had gone bankrupt. And when I say slight… In the space of a few months I had gone from a healthily built physique to looking like a twig. It seemed Larxene was out to reverse this. Took her long enough.

"And don't you forget it." She dropped the bags onto the sofa, flopping down straight after and grabbing a beer.

The rest of the night was spent getting horribly drunk. I don't actually remember… well, anything. Apart from the fact that I ate more than I had in months, and it was the best feeling _ever_.

Next thing I did remember was the next morning when I woke up sprawled across my sofa, with Larxene slumped over a chair on the other side of the room. I knew she wouldn't be hung over or anything – Larxene was a real heavyweight when it came to alcohol. I had a bit of headache, but nothing too bad.

I sat up, staring at the blank TV screen for a while, thinking about my plans for the day. Today was my day off work, Sunday, which meant…

_School tomorrow._

"Ugh." I smoothed my hand across my face, trying to wake myself up. "Supplies, supplies…" I murmured. "I don't have any…"

Yeah… I might have burnt them after I got expelled. Oops.

"Whassaat?" Larxene slurred as she slowly began to wake up. "…Can't see anything." She muttered. I could hear her shifting in her chair.

"Well yeah… the lights are off." I replied. "Hey, Larx, where's a good place for supplies?" I turned to face her as my eyes started to adjust to the little light there was.

"… That big place outside town." She replied after a second.

"… Mind doing me a favour?"

"Yeah yeah, I'll take you." She had got up, and the next thing I knew I was being blinded by artificial light. I squinted and drew my hand up over my face.

"Ooow.." I muttered, slowly opening my eyes again.

"Come on, it won't be open very long today."

"Right, yeah…" I pulled myself up from the sofa, grabbing a hoodie and boots before opening the door.

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And so finally we came walking out of the supply store with a bag full of decidedly non-burnt stuff. Hey, it's not like it was my fault or anything.

…

Shut up.

I just _happen _to like fire, alright.

… Well alright, maybe I'm very slightly a pyromaniac. Larxene had her lightning fetish, and I had my pyromaniacy, and that's how it was.

But anyway.

"Ready for tomorrow?" Larx grinned as she slid into the car.

"As I can be." I replied, which really meant that I didn't care.

"You're probably gonna have to fill in a few forms before you can actually… y'know start the learnin'."

"Oh yay, my favourite ever thing." I muttered, sarcasm practically dripping off my voice. This was gonna be the funnest thing ever…

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**And that's chapter 2 over and done with, yay! Roxas' turn next. **

**If you think Larxene is OOC what with her academic attitude... I don't think so. I think that in real life she'd be pretty ambitious. Meh, then again, it's kinda the stereotype to have Orgy XIII as druggies and all that. Guess I'm just being different XD Who wants to be the sheep, eh?**

**Anyway, I'm done for now. See ya 'gain! (And don't forget to review, eh? XD)**


	3. Who I'm Really Not

Hello again… for the first time in a while O.O The fact that I haven't updated in ages has _absolutely **nothing **_to do with the fact that I'm getting hardly any reviews. **Nothing** at all. … really.

… Okay, so I'm _slightly _demotivated because of that, but hey, hopefully things'll get better – I dunno. I'd kinda like to know what people don't like about it, though.

Anyway, it's Roxas' chapter now. Enjoy!

**Chapter 3: Who I'm Really Not**

Monday. The day I, Roxas, had been dreading for the past three weeks, ever since that stupid, stupid bet with Hayner, that bastard.

"_Woah, I won."_

"_Crap." _

"_Soo I get to decide what you wear on the first day back!"  
_

"…_Hayner…"_

"_I can make it as painful as possible for you… and there'll be nothing you can do about it." He had this mad grin on his face. I think he likes tormenting me. He's a bit of a weird best friend._

"… _Sora's not gonna like it, y'know." I murmured, and Hayner's expression darkened for just a moment. He apparently decided to brush off that comment, as he carried on like I hadn't said anything.  
_

"_That's what we decided, remember?"  
_

"… _I guess." I muttered, severely regretting it. Damn me for thinking I could win a game of toss-up every time. Hayner had an… interesting imagination. _

And so now I was having a lose-lose staring competition with my uniform for the day – a Japanese school girl's outfit. Not just the typical sailor shirt and mini skirt, either. Hayner had apparently gone all out – there were also a pair of school girl socks, and even fake boobs.

"Aaah, don't worry, Rox. You look enough like a girl already, the newbies'll just think you are one…hey… don't hit m-"

Eventually, I grit my teeth and dragged it down from its hanger. Before I changed, I went over to the mirror. Was Hayner right? Did I really look like a girl?

"Do you think so?" I casually asked the boy standing in front of me, staring back at me. He was wearing the same clothes, the same expression and the same posture as me. The same aquamarine eyes, same spiked blonde hair, same neutral expression. It was all there, down to the costume I was holding limply in my hand. This would be the guy I mentioned before. To Hayner? Well, his name wasn't officially Sora. He was always there, although I could only ever see him if I looked at a mirror, and as much as I asked he would never tell me his name. Therefore I saw it as my duty to give him one. From that moment on, he had been called Sora, a tribute to my dead older brother. Yeah, my brother died two years back. He had cancer, and eventually it killed him off. And I care. It sounds like I don't, but I do. It's just one of those things you gotta deal with, is all...

Olette - she's one of my best friends, once said that giving my reflection the same name as my brother was probably my way of getting over it. I had given her a funny look – at least, I probably did. I would do it she said that now. That wasn't the reason. I mean, alright, it was probably part of the reason. He just needed a name, is all.

Eventually I got changed into the uniform, having some trouble with getting the clasp undone on the skirt. When I was done, I looked myself down, brushing out the creases in the top before walking back over to the mirror, not expecting anything other than what greeted me.

"You into crossdressing or something?" I asked Sora. "I mean, you at least had a choice today." Of course, he didn't reply. He just stared right back at me like always, arms folded nonchalantly. I was used to it by now – him always appearing wearing the same things as me, never answering my questions… never even speaking to me. Sometimes it annoyed me, sometimes it didn't. Most of the time I just took as it came.

A loud car horn made me start violently – my pulse soared as I got over jumping what felt like a few feet into the air, and I closed my eyes for a moment, trying to bring it back to normal before remembering that Hayner had agreed to pick me up today. I ran over to the window, flinging it open and seeing the boy in question leaning out his car window. He grinned when he saw me, waving.

"Get down here!" He called.

"Yeah yeah, I'll be there in a second." I replied, grabbing my school bag from the bed before swinging round on the spot and taking one last look at Sora. "We're in this together, right?" I asked, smiling nervously, and then inwardly winced as I realised I was acting more and more like your stereotypical girl by the second. Sora smiled back, reassuring me as I walked out of the room and down the stairs. As I got to the door, I mentally stabled myself before opening it and walking out into the street.

"Lookin' goood." Hayner grinned as I slid into the passenger seat, throwing my school bag into the seats behind.

"Shut up." I muttered, leaning back into my seat and folding my arms after doing up the belt. I glanced up at where the car mirror was – it was faced directly towards Hayner, and had been since Sora had come along. For some reason he always tensed up whenever I mentioned him. Pretty often he muttered something about therapy, but didn't elaborate. "This is all your fault."

"Pfft, nice to see you too." Hayner quipped as he started the engine. "Looking forward to today?"

"Hah, in this?"

"Shut up, it suits you."

"I swear, Hayner, if some guy hits on me, even once…" To be honest I had nothing to follow that up with, so I left it hanging.

"Well, there's something else I need to tell you."

"… Do I really want to hear this?" I asked, sighing.

"Probably not. But I'm gonna tell you anyway." He said in that annoying mocking tone of voice, and then fell silent.

"… Yeah?" I asked, frowning.

"You've gotta act like a girl. The whoooole day." He told me, this huge grin appearing on his face.

"Oh god." I muttered, cringing. "Only if there's something in it for me." I relented.

"Yeah, sure, I'll buy you a pizza or something."

"Take out isn't going to persuade me." I said darkly, eyes narrowing.

"Not take out, promise."

"…Fine." I agreed as we pulled up into the school premises. "But it better be damn good pizza." Hopefully I sounded threatening – I was serious, it'd be a big let down to have shit pizza as a reward for doing this for a whole day.

Luckily there was a parking space right in front of the entrance. We got out and headed into the lobby. I frowned as I saw Sora in the glass door, still wearing the same uniform as me. It was as if he liked it or something.

As I got into the lobby I looked around for a second to see if there was anyone around, and as I was doing so, this streak of red caught my attention. Looking back over to it, I realised it belonged to a person. A person I had never seen before, which was strange. He didn't look young enough to be in the first years – in fact, he looked old enough to be in my year, which was really weird. You didn't get very many new people in our year.

As I started to walk past, he looked up, as you generally do when something catches your eye, I guess. Thing is, when he saw me he just… froze. Right there on the spot. Not moving. I almost waved a hand in front of his face to see if he was alright, but then he blinked, so I didn't. Alright, fine, so I'm in a Japanese uniform! And I'm a guy! But just because I'm radiating testosterone doesn't mean you have to stare at me like that…

There was a 'subtle' cough from across the lobby, and I looked round to see Hayner casually leaning against the wall, as if he was waiting for something. Oh right, yeah. Girl. I am a girl.

Hayneryoufuckingbastard.

"Umm… yeah?" I asked in my best girly voice, placing my hands on my hips. He blinked at me a few times before shrugging and going back to his form filling. Slightly freaked out, I couldn't find it within myself to move for a few seconds until Hayner's hand landed on my shoulder and started to twist me around as he began moving. I made some strange strangled noise before twisting myself round properly and walking on.

"Not even 5 minutes in and you got some dude attention. That's pretty good!" Hayner grinned, taking his hand off my shoulder.

"Shut up, I dunno what was wrong with him." I muttered, glancing back to see him putting his pen down and shoving the paper towards the receptionist, who I almost felt sorry for just then.

"Aww come on, isn't it obvious? He was mesmerized by your feminine aura." As he spoke he tilted his head up to at his hand, which was currently a small arc in mid air above his head. I batted it back down to his side, frowning, about to make a retort when I was flung backwards into… a body.

"Roxas, you are _so_ cute!" Olette said from my shoulder, her arms wrapped around my waist as I flailed about, trying to steady myself. When she let go, I looked round to see her sporting her orange tank top and beige three quarter lengths as she smiled up at me. Not that she was that much shorter than me. "You made a good choice, Hayner."

"Of course." Hayner grinned.

"It was not a good choice." I mumbled. "I look like a prat."

"Oh Roxas, no you don't!" Olette reassured me. "You look sweet!"

"I'm a guy." I reminded her. "I'm not _supposed _to look sweet." As I finally got over the shock of being jumped on so violently, I realised that Pence had been standing just behind Olette the whole time, looking slightly dumbstruck. Well, alright, so he always looked a bit dumbstruck, but this was a bit different.

"R…Roxas." He stuttered. …Oh, that's right… Pence hadn't known about the bet at all. Somehow we had neglected to tell him. Olette had at least got some warning. Maybe Hayner thought it would be funny, and I say maybe but really it was kind of obvious as he tried to suppress his laughter in the background. "What're you… what…" he tried to steady himself before speaking again. "What on earth are you doing?"

"Ah…I made a bet with Hayner." I muttered. As an afterthought, I said, "I lost," like it wasn't plainly obvious.

"I should have guessed." Pence sighed before looking up at me again. "Well, umm… it doesn't look too bad."

"Yeah, it really suits him, right?" Hayner butted in. "He's already been hit on once."

Dramatic pause.

"By a _guy_."

"Wow, who?" Olette asked, slight frown adorning her features.

"Damned if I know. Some new guy, I think." Hayner shrugged. "But still, it counts, right?" It was here I got a chance to speak.

"He was not hitting on me." I growled. "He just kinda…" I trailed off, thinking of the right word. "Froze."

"Froze?" Pence looked a little unsure.

"He was checking you ouuut." Hayner drawled, grinning. I sighed, rolling my eyes at him. This was gonna be a fun day.

00000000

In the end, hardly anyone really batted an eyelid at my strange outfit. I guessed that showed just how strange the school was. Although, I did have another weird run in with that guy from earlier. He was in one of my classes…

You know that feeling you get when you _know_ someone's staring at you? Well that's what I was getting right about then. I really wanted to turn round to try and see who it was, and decided that since the clock was on the wall behind me I had a plausible reason to do so. So I glanced round, only to instantly see who it was that was staring at me.

The guy from earlier. Red-head. Argh, I was NOT that interesting. I mean, fine, whatever, it wasn't every day you saw a guy in a girl's Japanese uniform but… god.

I had been right – he was new, and in our year, but I suppose you guessed that when I said he was in my class... Anyway, I supposed he was trying to suss out whether I was a guy or not.

Thing is, when I looked round, I was instantly hooked on his eyes. They were so… green. As in, really, really green. I dunno why I hadn't noticed it back in the lobby. I quickly realised he wasn't like your normal guy, who'd instantly look away when you caught their eye. Nope, this guy just kept staring. It was kinda disconcerting. … Okay. _Really _disconcerting.

What drew him out of this trance-like state was the mutterings of our resident gender-confused girl, Dyme. It's not like it was a rare thing, but obviously this guy hadn't heard it before.

"I mean, that guy musta been gay or something… hitting on me… a guy… how oblivious can you get…"

"Dyme." Our teacher folded her arms, raising an eyebrow. "It would be appreciated if you could stop that, please."

Dyme gave her these huge puppy eyes – at least, I couldn't see her do it; I was behind her. But I knew she was doing it - it was her trade mark, after all.

"But, Miss… they just don't understand…"

"I'm sure they don't mean you any harm Dyme."

"But… I…"

"Dyme, come on, you're wasting everyone's ti-"

"I HAVE A PENIS!" She cried out, instantly bursting into tears, her head thwacking onto the desk as she pummelled it with her fists. Through the sobbing you could just about hear her muttering about how it couldn't be that hard to understand. The class instantly went silent. Or, more silent. Dyme had pretty much stopped all noise the moment she had started talking. This was more of a… 'suspense silence' type of thing.

Behind me, though, someone was trying to stifle laughter, and I didn't have to guess twice who it might have been. Subtly turning around a little, I saw it was indeed the staring-guy. After that, laughter slowly rippled across the classroom, until only Dyme was left staring round the room and wondering just what everyone was laughing about.

00000000

"So you owe me a pizza." I said nonchalantly as soon as I met up with Hayner at the end of the day. I hated to say it but I had kinda got used to wearing this stuff. Not that I'd wear it on a daily basis. Nooo… but it wasn't like I was incredibly uncomfortable in it or anything.

"And you rightly well deserve it." Hayner grinned, slinging a friendly arm round my shoulder. "So where d'you wanna go?" He asked.

"Umm… I don't know?" I wasn't exactly the person to ask if you wanted to find a restaurant.

"God, Roxas, you've gotta know at least one… fine, I'll choose. It'll be a surprise!"

"It's not like I'd know where it was even if you did tell me the name." I murmured.

"Good point." Hayner said happily. "Well, when do you wanna go?"

"I dunno… umm."

"Tell you what, I'll take you back to yours, then we can go. How 'bout that?" He compromised. Sighing in defeat, I nodded.

"Lets go, then."

00000000

**AN: So that's it for now. Until next time. **


	4. Penny for the Dyme

**Chapter 4: Penny for the Dyme**

Okay, so this Dyme chick was probably my best find of the day. …Aside from the kid. I mean, I mighta played for the other team n' all but those Japanese uniforms are pretty hot. I think she was transfixed by me… the way she was staring at me. At least, I think it was a girl. She _looked _girly enough.

Anyway.

Dyme.

So yeah, after class I caught her walking out on her own, and just managed to stop another one of her 'oh-em-gee don't touch me I'm a guy and you're a guy I'm not gay stop hitting on me' outbursts by simply saying,

"Hey dude."

"…Dude?" She asked, apparently confused.

"Well… you are a guy, right?"

Dyme's expression slowly turned from confused to downright shocked. "You're like, one of the few people who actually believe me!"

"No idea why." I murmured nonchalantly, although at a glance it was obvious she wasn't a boy. …Really obvious.

"Who are you, anyway?" She asked, tilting her head gently to the side, hoisting her bag strap further onto her shoulder as she spoke. "I haven't seen you before."

"That'd be because I'm new, starting from today. I'm Axel."

"Oh, well, I'm –"

"Yeah, I know you're name." I cut in, waving my hand about to stop her. "It's Dy-"

"It's Demyx!" She looked so happy as she said it, her eyes lighting up as she bounced up and down on the balls of her feet, as if she was so happy to finally get a chance to tell someone this small piece of information. Then again, I thought, that probably _was_ the reason.

"Uh… wha'?"

"Demyx!" She repeated, giving me this huge grin. Inwardly I was twitching. Of all the names, it had to be one with an x in it. "My Mom gave me a _girly _name so I thought up a more _manly_ one, and it's great, don'tcha think, hey Axel?" As she spoke she was slowly leaning her upper body closer and closer to me and lifting herself up by the balls of her feet until her face was nearly smashing itself into mine, her huge grin and big eyes boring into my vision and making me go very slightly cross eyed.

"Yeah, it's great." I murmured before pushing her away by her forehead.

"Heeey,.do you play any instruments?" She asked suddenly, calming down somewhat.

"Oh, I've tried guitar a few times… I'm alright at it. Why, do you?"

She nodded enthusiastically. "I play the sitar!"

"Really? That's different."

"Yeah… it's really cool. It's nearly as big as me, and it's blue." And all of a sudden she had that far away look in her eye, with the soft smile. "I wanna show you sometime, Axel." The way she was talking it was like she wanted to take me to a sunset picnic on the beach. Y'know the sort. Romantic to the core.

"That'd be cool." So she was offering to show me what seemed to be her favourite most treasured thing and I'd only known her for a few minutes.

Well, it was a start, anyway.

"Heey, wanna be friends?" She asked suddenly, the bounce coming back with a vengeance.

"Umm… sure." Well, that had been my objective in the first place, really.

"Coool. Well… wanna get lunch with me?"

"Yeah, ok." I nodded. "I was gonna meet up with a friend… dunno if you wanna come." Speaking of which, Larx was probably already waiting for me…

…well, she could wait a few more minutes. No harm done.

"Who?" Dym – or rather, Demyx, asked, tilting her head to the side.

"Larxene."

"Ooh… I think I know her." She scrunched her face up in thought. Eventually she looked up at me, smiling. "Yeah, I'll come!"

"Well, in that case… you couldn't help me find the way there, could ya?" I asked, running a hand through my hair, giving her a nervous grin.

"Oooh, 'cause you're neeew." She grinned, tapping her nose and winking in that 'I getcha' way they do in cartoons.

"…Yep." I murmured as she started to bound off in what I guessed was the direction of the dining hall.

Well, that had been surprisingly easy.

I did sorta wonder if she had any friends herself, as I went after her. After all, it was often the carefree ones who were hiding something. Hah, I dunno. Maybe I was just making assumptions too qui-

"Hey, Axel, over here!" Larxene's voice dragged me out of my thoughts, which by then was a decidedly good thing. Dyme had stopped as well, hearing my name being called out.

"Hey Larx." I pulled out a chair, flopping down onto it.

"So… how's it going?"

"Pretty good… had a few classes, made a friend… all good." Just as I said that. Dyme herself came bounding over, enthusiastically slamming her hands down onto the table.

"I _knew_ I knew who you were talking about." She told me, clearly talking about Larxene, who was looking quite confused – she turned to me and cocked an eyebrow as if to say 'her?' I only shrugged before turning back to Dyme.

"Yep, Larxene. Hey Larx, you know Demyx?" I was careful to use her 'boy' name, and although Larxene's expression turned even more confused, she still answered.

"Who doesn't? Aside from the gender-bending thing she's a kick-ass sitar player."

"Wow, I'm glad you think so." Dyme smiled, drawing up a chair, apparently choosing to ignore the 'gender-bending' quip.

As she was speaking, I suddenly caught sight of 'the kid' in the lunch line. Y'know, the one who'd been staring at me. I watched her for a while, talking to her friends, getting lunch… which suddenly reminded me.

"So, whose up for food?" I asked, getting up.

"Oo, me!" Dyme shot out of her seat, flinging her arm into the air as if answering some important question in class. Larx poked me in the back, signalling she wanted to talk to me, so I let Dyme go ahead before turning to her as we walked more slowly to the line.

"Where'd she spring from all of a sudden?"

"Don't tell me your _jealous._" I grinned, leaning against the wall once we reached the line.

"Of course not." She replied, her hand resting dangerously on her taser-pocket. Something ironic clicked in my mind – Dyme appeared to like water – it was just an assumption, but the water patterns on her jeans and the fact that her sitar was blue… eh, maybe it was just me, but anyway. If Dyme did like water, Larx like electricity. The two didn't mix particularly well… maybe it was a sign! But then, maybe I could unleash my pyromaniacy on them both and neutralise the water-lightning-spurred hatred!

…Yeah…

"It's just, she's perhaps one of the strangest people in our year. And her name's not Demik, or whatever you called her, it's –"

"Dyme, I know, I know. Demyx is her made up 'boy name'." I explained. "And she seems pretty nice. I don't see what's wrong."

Larxene sighed, shrugging. "Well, it's your choice."

"Whilst we're on the subject of weirdos, whose that kid?" I asked, catching sight of her again.

"… I'm not sure." Larxene frowned. "Don't really recognise her… I mean, it _looks _like Roxas, but he isn't a girl."

"Right." I nodded as we came up to the counter, not bothering to ask who this 'Roxas' was.

"Why?" 

"Oh, no reason." I shrugged nonchalantly.

"Aw, come on, Ax." Larx grinned, gently punching me in the arm. "Nothing is ever without a reason where you're concerned."

"Oh, you can always see right through me, Larx." _And in corner one, Axel, with his word-play… _ "Fine, I wanna know 'cause I'm just _obsessed _with those Japanese, and, y'know, everytime I see one of those uniforms I have this overwhelming urge to pounce and do 'em into oblivion." _Oh, and here comes Larxene in corner two with her special move – the eye-roller!_

"What, do the uniforms?" _And dare we mention a hint of sarcasm, ladies and gentleman?_

"Oh Larxene, you crack me up." Apparantly she had given up, because she simply shook her head before walking away. I grinned, following her back to our table, this time with food.

Skip ahead a bit, (It's not like we were talking about anything interesting, anyways), and we're in what I guessed was the music room – it was pretty big and there were guitar cases and shit everywhere, not to mention a piano in the corner of the room.

I suppose you've guessed by now that Dyme had succeeded in her goal of showing me her sitar, and as a bonus Larxene had decided to tag along as well. I spotted said sitar as soon as we walked into the room – I mean, it wasn't exactly hard. It was sitting by the wall we were directly opposite, and was in a big blue case with the word 'Dyme' written diagonally across it in big, dark blue letters. As we got closer to it I could see that Dyme had crossed out the y and the m and written 'myx' after the e.

"This is it!" Dyme said excitedly, pointing to the blue case.

"Yeah, I guessed." I grinned, patting her gently on the shoulder as she started to unzip the case to reveal the coolest instrument I'd ever seen. Nothing I can say could really describe what it looked like – 'unique' was one word that came to mind. She left it lying on the floor in its case for a moment as she dug around in the corner of the room for her amp. No, it wasn't blue, but I was kinda expecting it to be.

Once she had set it all up, got the sitar out and put the strap round her shoulder, she simply stood there with her elbows resting on the edges of it, biting her lip nervously.

"Umm… I dunno what to play." She murmured.

"Aah, play anything that comes to mind." I'd never actually heard a sitar being played before, so I wasn't exactly sure what to expect when she started playing. The sound was a new one to me, but what I did realise was that this girl was talented – it got my taste for playing flowing back again.

"Hey, there any guitars I can use in here?" I asked, glancing around. Dyme wordlessly motioned her head towards one in the corner, and I hesitated before going to get it. It was like she was a completely different person when she was playing.

The rest of the lunch period was spent sitting around in the music room, me and Dyme sat on chairs, me teaching her some songs I knew and Larx accompanying us on the piano – she had had some lessons when she was younger at her parents will. And for the first time in a long while, I felt completely calm again.

00000000

Just because I'd started school didn't mean I could skip out on my job. Hell no – after all, school didn't give you money, and money was the only way I was gonna get by. So once the first day was over, Larxene took me to my apartment to let me drop all my stuff off before taking me over to the restaurant.

"So what's the verdict." She asked on the way there, staring straight ahead at the road. I didn't have to guess twice what she was talking about.

"I can live with it." I grinned. "Seems like there's some pretty cool people."

"Well, I'm glad I can help you out once in a while." She was silent for a moment, but there was that contemplative air about her that meant she was gonna speak again, so I stayed silent, leaning back a bit more into the passenger seat, focusing on the music playing in the background. Probably Metallica or something, knowing Larx – I hadn't heard it before, anyway. When she did speak again, I kinda had to listen a little harder than normal to catch it. "Pride… really gets the better of us sometimes, huh?"

I had no answer to that – it was stupidly rare for Larxene to get all contemplative about stuff, so when she did it left me frantically searching for something to say. 

"All those times that we've needed help… and never asked for it." She gave a stifled laugh before reaching out an arm and punching mine in her attempt at casual friendliness. "But hey, it all seems to work out, huh?" I grinned back.

"Yeah, it does, huh." There was silence again for a moment as I wracked my mind for some topic to break it. "Heey…" I murmured thoughtfully. Larx glanced my way as she stopped the car at traffic lights. "Do you… actually like Dyme?"

"Don't you mean Demyx?" Larxene asked, grinning.

"Heh, I guess. But really, she seems like a nice kid."

"Oh yeah, she's nice enough. In fact, if it wasn't for her friends outside of school she'd probably be pretty popular."

"Huh?" So my assumptions weren't entirely correct, then.

"Rumour is she knows some shady people. Bit like we used to." She gave a short laugh. "Well, at least she hasn't had any murder attempts sprung on her."

"Hey, not funny." I muttered.

"Well, here we are." She said suddenly.

"Way to change the subject." I murmured, but started to get out anyway. Whether Larxene had heard me or not was something of a mystery, as she didn't show any signs of it. "Thanks for the lift, Larx."

"Hey, anytime." She grinned. "Have a good one."

"Yeah…" I murmured, my mind now fixated on this whole thing with Demyx. Oh, no, wait, Dyme. … Damn, this was gonna get confusing.

Luckily, the night ahead was bound to take my mind off things…


	5. Tricks of the Mind

**A/N: Well, this is the last try. I considered giving up for ages – lack of reviews does not a motivated me make. I'm not entirely sure why – is it the lack of Axel/Roxas interaction, even though there's already been 4 chapters? Is my writing really bad? Whatever it is, I dunno, but I've had this chapter done for a while and thought that I'd give it another go, considering there IS some interaction between Roxas and Axel in this one. (Just talking, sorry). If this chapter falls on it's ass, consider this done and finished. Maybe it's just that the Akuroku fandom has died nowadays? Who knows. Aah hell, here's the chapter, anyways.**

**Disclaimer: Don't own, blahblah..**

**Chapter 5: Trick of the Mind**

So eventually we ended up in front of this Italian restaurant in the middle of town after dropping off at my place and then going to get Olette and Pence, (We'd called them to see if they wanted to come along – I guess Hayner didn't like the idea of just me and him going into a restaurant together) and by then it was just getting to early evening.

Don't get me wrong, it wasn't one of those totally up-market places. It just did good pizza. At least, that's what Hayner said. You can never quite tell what his intentions are. So we sat down at a table in the corner of the restaurant, watching as it steadily got fuller whilst looking over the menu, sipping on our provided drinks now and then.

"Wow, Hayner, you really outdid yourself this time." Olette smiled, putting her menu down. "Normally its just take out pizza or something." Hayner grinned, clapping me on the shoulder.

"Roxas deserves it." He stated, before carrying on. "Hey, guys, a toast to Roxas, the schoolgirl!" He announced pretty loudly, causing me to shrink into my seat whilst the other three toasted my dressing up for the day. Honestly, it wasn't _that_ much of an achievement.

"Alright guys, you ready to order?" The waiter, a different one from before, which was pretty obvious as we'd had a girl before, (Hayner had spent pretty much the whole time staring at her boobs, which she tactfully ignored) and this guy was clearly… well, a guy, spoke up from behind us.

"Yep." We said pretty much in unison, and I turned round to place my order.

Unfortunately I didn't get that far.

"Ah.." I murmured, kinda freezing in place, eyes instantly widening as they locked onto the waiter standing by our table, in particular onto his own bright green eyes. "You…"

"Me?" He asked, pen poised above his notepad, his eyebrows dipping into a confused frown. As he studied me, he did that head-tilting thing, slowly putting his arms down to rest on his hips, his pen tapping absently against the notepad in a constant rhythm. Instantly I regretted speaking up – nothing good could come of this. "Heeeey! I remember you… aren't you that girl?" I swear I would have swivelled round right there and slam my head against the table in humiliation, were in not for the fact that I knew it would have hurt.

"Who, Roxas here?" Hayner butted in. When I glanced over to him he had this smirk on his face that told me he didn't have particularly good intentions. My expression fell more than it's previous state of embarrassment. "Ah, you're the new guy from school, right?"

"That'd be me." He nodded. "Axel… commit it to memory." As he spoke he leant forward a little and tapped his head lightly.

"…Uh… sure, dude. Anyway, I guess you saw Roxas here in his pretty outfit."

"Huh?" Axel blinked in confusion, looking over to me. "You mean, you really weren't a girl?" My face was slowly heating up, and it didn't help that from behind me I could hear Olette and Pence trying to stifle their laughter. Meanwhile, after hearing that from Axel, Hayner was busy whacking his fist on the table, doubled over in seemingly unstoppable fits of laughter.

"You… you thought… haha…" Hayner tried to calm himself, but it wasn't very successful. "You _actually_ thought he was a… a _girl…_. I _told_ you, Roxas, I _said _you looked like… haha…like a girl…"

"Shut _up, _Hayner." I grimaced.

Meanwhile, Axel was laughing to himself at Hayner, but when he noticed the glare I was sporting, he smiled nervously. "Heh, sorry about that… umm…" Axel hesitated for a moment. "Roxas?"

"Yeah." I murmured, trying to focus on talking to Axel. Anything to distract myself from Hayner, who was currently trying to calm down himself down by pressing his face into the table.

"You know something… you make a _really_ convincing girl." Axel said thoughtfully, and I swear my face got even hotter. "But really, I wouldn't go around making a habit of it. You're a cute boy, too."

"Huh?"

"Hey, it's just an observation. Anyway, back to what I came here for… what'd you like to eat?"

So we all ordered – even Hayner managed to calm down enough to order. When Axel had gone, though, I smacked him in the back of the head, slamming it right back down into the table.

"You. _Bastard."_

"Oh my god, your _face_, Roxas." Hayner grinned as he surfaced from the table again.

"Hayner, that was pretty mean." Olette said, but her grin betrayed her words.

"Aww, shut up, you enjoyed it too." Hayner retorted.

"It was kinda funny…" Pence chipped in, though sounded a bit worried. What the hell – he sounded worried a lot of the time. "Roxas, you alright?"

"Yeah, once I get a chance to beat this guy up I think I'll be fine." I muttered.

"Hey, remember whose paying here!" Hayner reminded me. I sighed, remembering just why we were here in the first place before giving in and resting my elbows back onto the table, this time with a sense of dread – Axel was going to come back over here with food. Crap, if Hayner made more quips about my apparent femininity I'd…

…

Well, I don't know. I'd do something. Eventually. But there was also the fact that Axel was slightly intimidating. Except not. It was hard to explain. Really, it was hard not to feel awkward around him when just a few hours before, he'd been staring at me with the intensity of a wild-fire.

"… Heey, did you see that new kid they're dragging round with them now?" Hayner's voice dragged me out of my thoughts, and it took me a few seconds to realise I was currently having a dazed staring competition with the wall in front of me. I could practically feel the glazed-overness of my eyes. Only then did I realise that I had indeed been spaced out, and therefore had absolutely no idea what they were talking about.

"… Huh?" I asked dumbly. And suddenly everyone's attention was on me. "Haha… I zoned out."

"We noticed. "Hayner informed me, holding the top of his glass absently in one hand. "I was just saying how Seifer's gang have this new kid."

"…That's weird." Seifer's 'gang' had been the same since I had known them – Seifer, Rai and Fuu.

"Yeah, I've seen him." Pence said. "He was pretty small… and he had this huge hat on. Kinda wizard-esque"

"I think Fuu knew him… maybe." Olette shrugged as she spoke. "Vivi, I think his name is."

"… He foreign or something?" Hayner asked. I had to admit, it did sound a bit weird – small kid, big wizard hat, and a kinda name you don't hear very often.

"I don't know…" Olette murmured thoughtfully. "Sounds pretty plausible, though."

"Well whoever he is, he's pretty stupid for getting in with that lot." I commented. "They'll do nothing but put a bad influence on him."

After that the conversation topic changed to some assignment in a class I wasn't even in, so I started to zone out again. I was thrown out of it this time by Hayner leaning in and whispering to me, 'Hey, there's your boyfriend' and giving me this evil smirk, to which I rolled my eyes and started to try get back unto the conversation. Unfortunately, this became the regular thing whilst waiting for the food – I zoned out, and Hayner reminded me of Axel's looming presence. Eventually, he came back to our table, this time armed with food. It surprised me when all he said as he put the plates down was 'here's your food', and then walked away. It didn't seem quite right, somehow.

Hell, why did I even care? I simply shrugged it off and started on the pizza in front of me. I froze with my cutlery mid-way towards the plate when I heard the scraping of a chair, which stopped _right next to me._ Okay, sure, _between_ me and Hayner – I mean it was only logical since me and Hayner weren't the ones sitting in front of a wall…

I suddenly realised my hands hadn't moved, and then a split second later realised Axel was looking pointedly from them to my face and back, sporting this amused grin which annoyed the hell out of me. Slowly I put my hands down, placing the cutlery back onto the table before looking over to Axel.

"… Hi." I said. "Aren't you supposed to be working?"

"Nah, Tifa and Zell've got it covered for now, so I took a break." He grinned.

"Is Tifa that waitress we had before?"

"Probably… she's the one with the massive rack." He said absently, waving his hand about a bit as he spoke. 

"Man, she was _out there_." Hayner said suddenly, not at all shocked that Axel had decided to come and join us.

"Tell me about it." Axel gave a short laugh. "Anyway, just thought I'd come and get to know my classmates a bit better." He explained helpfully – or rather, his idea of helpfully. After a few seconds I realised he was staring at my still untouched plate.

"Roxas…?" He murmured, poking me in the arm. I looked down at the pizza, which was practically screaming 'EAT ME!', but somehow I felt a bit uncomfortable doing so around Axel. "… You want me to cut it up for you or something?" He asked, cocking an eyebrow expectantly at me.

"N-no…" I muttered, my face heating up again as I took the cutlery and slowly began cutting my way into it.

"Good Roxas." Axel said in that tone of voice you would take on a toddler, patting my shoulder in the process. My hand clenched tighter around the fork. That's right Roxas. Take the anger out on the fork and everything will be good again.

"Hey," Hayner spoke up again, pizza in hand. "How come you're joining in the last year, anyway? It's pretty rare."

"Oh, that." Axel murmured, leaning back on his chair. "I got expelled from my last one."

"Oh… why was that?" Olette asked. Axel gave a stifled laugh, shaking his head a little.

"Lets just say they weren't exactly liberal there." He said, giving us a few guesses as to why exactly he was expelled. I contemplated what that meant exactly over a mouthful of pizza for a second or two, despite the fact that he had basically handed the answer to us on a plate like the waiter he was. Not my plate, though. My plate wasn't a gay plate.

…

'cause, y'know. Gay. He was probably… yeah. I mentally told myself to shut up, and instead turned to the red head in question with this half-frown. In response he rested his cheek on his palm, giving me what I could only discern in my head as, 'the flirty look'. My eyes widened and I instantly turned back towards my pizza, suddenly taking a huge amount of interest in cutting it up into tiny pieces.

Then there was that awkward silence. The silence that kinda made me wary of cutting up more pizza in case the cutlery made metallic noises across the plate. So I didn't.

Whether it was because Axel sensed my discomfort or because he hated awkward silences as much as the next person I don't know, but in the end it was him that broke it. Which wasn't that surprising, really.

"What're your names, anyway?" He asked, staring round the table at the other three, who looked at up him and then amongst themselves as if something bad would happen to the first person who spoke. Like they'd spontaneously combust or something, I dunno. Either way, unsurprisingly it was Hayner who spoke up first.

"Hayner." He offered between bites of pizza.

"Olette." Olette said, giving Axel her winning smile. Really, it was a surprise she didn't have a boyfriend – not that she cared.

"Pence."

"Aaand Roxas." Axel finished, grinning like it was such an awesome thing to be able to remember my name. "I'll be sure to remember that. Get as many allies as I can, I think."

"You'll need 'em, at our school." Hayner agreed, waving his newly chosen pizza slice around enthusiastically as he spoke. "Especially with guys like Seifer, and –" But Axel cut him off there with this weird choking noise, his eyes suddenly fixated on either Hayner or Hayner's decidedly waved-about pizza – it was hard to tell – maybe he was really hungry?

"Would this be the Seifer of the Almasy type?" He asked, frowning. Right, not hunger, then.

"Err… yeah." Hayner confirmed.

"… Larxene did _not_ tell me he went to… hmm." His gaze fell to the table in that 'I am in deep thought' mode. He must have felt the four pairs of eyes burning into the top of his head, as he lifted it a few seconds afterwards, running a hand through his hair casually. "Not that I care, or anything… he lives near me, is all."

Seifer… I guess I haven't told you about him. He's the resident 'hard-ass' at school, with his two loyal followers, Rai and Fuu. Rai's the 'muscle' of the three, who has this weird tendency to add 'y'know' after everything he says. It must get annoying having long conversations with him. If you _can_ have long conversations with him… he's not exactly the smart type. Fuu… she speaks in monosyllables pretty much all the time. Sometimes, if you catch her on a good day, she'll say more than just one word to you. From the day we started at high school they gave us hell, but it's slowly been diminishing over the years. Now they occasionally say something if we go by, but nothing major.

"Well, anyway." Axel's voice dragged me back into reality, and it was then I realised that he had got out of his seat and I hadn't even realised it. "I'd better be getting back to work." He said as he lifted the chair up to go and put it back into its rightful place.

"See you around." Hayner replied, waving his hand in some sort of failed 'goodbye' gesture towards Axel. He got a similar reply from Olette and Pence, and I thought he had left after that but the hairs on the back of my neck pricked as I started on the remaining bits of pizza. Sighing, I turned round only to find his green eyes had been fixated on the back of my head - he was looking at me expectantly, one hand on his hip.

"…Umm. Bye, Axel." I said casually. He stared at me for slightly longer than was necessary after that before finally turning away, leaving me slightly bemused. As I turned back around the right way, my eye caught the window near us, and for a moment I swore I saw Sora smirking at me. It turned out to be a trick of the light, though – I blinked and it was normal again – there he was, sharing the same bemused expression as me. Yeah, Sora follows me wherever I go, too. Sometimes that gets me really annoyed – when I want some alone time and he just won't go away, y'know? But he does it so much now that I don't really bother to care. As I gazed at the window, I realised Olette was following my line of sight, having finished her pizza. When she saw Sora in the window, she gave me a nervous smile.

"Roxas, are you alright?" She asked. She always asked me something like that when Sora was there. 'Are you alright?' 'Do you feel okay?' It kinda annoyed me, but in the end it was just another of those things you had to get used to. Really, I was glad to have such a caring friend as Olette.

"He was smi-" I began, trying to talk quietly so only Olette would hear, but it was just a little bit hard when she was across the table from me and Hayner was right next to me. Hayner cut me off almost instantly when he realised what I was talking about, reaching up and putting a hand over my mouth. I shut up immediately, knowing what he was like about Sora, though when I looked over to Olette I could see that she looked disapproving of Hayner.

'Tell me afterwards.' She mouthed, and I nodded as Hayner took his hand away.

When we left, I took a quick glance around to see if Axel was still there, but I couldn't see him anywhere. For some reason that annoyed me for a moment, but I discarded the thought quickly before following the others outside.

Inside, though, I was still reassuring myself that he'd be there at school tomorrow.

OOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

**A/N: So that's that chapter done. Will it be the last one? The way things are going, yes, probably. Reviews can make it better, so review. Please. ** **I don't want to sound like a whiny bitch (sorry) so.. umm… I offer cookies! offers cookies**


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